Installation and Setup
Requirements
- NFS, Samba, or equivalent
xmms-syncup is not a streaming media solution, so all files which are played through XMMS must be accessible by identical paths on all hosts. NFS and Samba work well with a centralized media server; a distributed filesystem like AFS should work as well.
- NTP or equivalent
xmms-syncup's life is easier (and sync results are appreciably better) if the system clocks on all participating machines are aligned. ntpd is the most widely used NTP daemon; some people may find OpenNTPD easier to set up.
- Low-latency network
To insure synchronization messages arrive quickly, it is important to run xmms-syncup on a network that switches traffic quickly; low-bandwidth or high-latency networks may experience substantial playback misalignment. If the time between client and server as reported by ping is less than about 10ms, xmms-syncup is likely to be usable. (Machines connected by standard 100Mbps Ethernet or 802.11a/b/g should work well in most circumstances.)
- xmmsd (server only)
The current version of xmms-syncup relies on information provided by the xmmsd plugin running on the designated "server" player.
Installation
- tar -zxvf xmms-syncup-VERSION.tar.gz
- cd xmms-syncup-VERSION
- sh ./configure
- make
- su
- make install
Configuration
- On the General Plugins tab of XMMS's Preferences window, find and select the option for "XMMS-SyncUp"
- Make sure Enable plugin is checked
- Press Configure
- Enter the host and port of the designated server which is running xmmsd (NB: the server XMMS should not be running xmms-syncup)
- xmms should now grab a copy of the server's playlist and start playing the server's track
Problems
See the troubleshooting page if xmms-syncup isn't working as expected.